1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to media asset management. More particularly, the present invention relates to media asset lifecycle management.
2. Background Art
The creation rate of media assets such as audio recordings, pictures, and videos has increased tremendously because of the proliferation of digital recording and communication systems. Before this proliferation, the restricted availability of the means of producing and copying media assets meant that managing such media assets' lifecycles was relatively straightforward. Ad-hoc or manual processes were adequate for the purposes of deciding if a given media asset violated a copyright law, went against a decency guideline, or was simply no longer relevant and required deletion. Now, however, those processes tend to be overwhelmed by the flood of media assets that are created with the aid of modern technology.
The problem of media asset lifecycle management is distinct from the problem of storing such media assets. In the present state of the art, storage of media assets can be accomplished by digital content management systems, which absorb the modern content flood with relative ease, thanks to advances in areas such as hard disk drive design and relational database design. Once the media assets are stored, however, managing them over the course of their lifecycle (e.g., deciding if a particular picture is indecent, or if a particular recording contains a segment of a copyrighted work) is a difficult problem, conventional solutions to which remain rooted in old practices.
For example, several user-submitted content web sites, such as Youtube, manage very large sets of media assets in the form of user-submitted videos. The lifecycle of an exemplary video on such a website can involve import or upload processing, decency guideline violation reviewing, copyright guideline violation reviewing, and possibly deletion or elevation to a ranked or featured status. In order to review every user-submitted video for copyright violations, for example, the website can implement a variety of ad-hoc or manual processes. It can employ an army of human reviewers to look at each user-submitted video. Alternatively, it can demand copyrighted material from copyright holders to compare with its user-submitted videos in a brute-force manner. Neither of these processes scale well to manage the modern flood of user-submitted video content. Thus, the website may simply resort to waiting for a copyright holder to take some action, such as threatening or instituting a legal action, which entails major issues.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing an improved method and system for managing the lifecycle of media assets.